Man who admitted school campus sexual assault to sufferer in a Fb message sentenced to jail

[ad_1] A person who despatched a Fb message that stated, "So I raped you," to a girl he had sexually assaulted years earlier in school was sentenced to 2 to 4 years in jail on Monday.

The sentence got here greater than a 12 months after Ian Cleary, 32, was extradited again to Pennsylvania from France over the assault at Gettysburg Faculty and practically 12 years after the sufferer first went to police.

The decide took into consideration Cleary's responsible plea, his regret and his lengthy historical past of psychological sickness in giving a sentence under state pointers.

Cleary stated he despatched the messages in 2021 in regards to the sexual assault eight years earlier as a part of a 12-step program, in hopes of looking for atonement.

Sufferer Shannon Keeler advised the court docket on Monday that the messages solely reopened wounds she had lengthy carried over the assault, which went years with out being prosecuted.

"The system meant to guard me protected you as an alternative," stated Keeler, detailing in a strong 10-minute influence assertion the years she spent pursuing expenses, which prosecutors are sometimes reluctant to file in campus sexual assault instances.

"This is not simply my story; that is the story of numerous girls," she stated.

Cleary confronted a most of 10 years in jail for the assault, and the 2 sides had initially proposed a four- to eight-year sentence.

Andrea Levy, Keeler's lawyer, stated the sentence was "lower than what we anticipated and definitely lower than he deserves," however she stated there was aid that the case was over.

Keeler advised police that Cleary sneaked into her dorm on the eve of winter break, when few individuals have been left on campus, then pushed his manner into her room and assaulted her. She was an 18-year-old in her first semester on campus on the time.

Senior Choose Kevin Hess stated that anybody with daughters or, like him, granddaughters in school would discover the crime "horrifying."

<img loading="lazy" alt="A blonde haired woman with sunglasses atop her head and wearing a shawl is shown on a sidewalk talking to a half-dozen people, with a school bus behind her." srcset="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3cf3dadf-2bf8-4873-a7f5-54e7a3a955bf,1761040071422/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C3684%2C2456%29%3BResize%3D805 805w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3cf3dadf-2bf8-4873-a7f5-54e7a3a955bf,1761040071422/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C3684%2C2456%29%3BResize%3D1104 1104w,https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3cf3dadf-2bf8-4873-a7f5-54e7a3a955bf,1761040071422/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C3684%2C2456%29%3BResize%3D1280 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 762px) 93.6vw,730px" src="https://i.cbc.ca/ais/3cf3dadf-2bf8-4873-a7f5-54e7a3a955bf,1761040071422/full/max/0/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C3684%2C2456%29%3B" style="aspect-ratio:1.5" data-cy="image-img"/> Shannon Keeler meets with supporters outdoors the Adams County Courthouse in Gettysburg, Pa., on Monday. Keeler gave an emotional influence assertion in court docket. (Maryclaire Dale/The Related Press) However, he stated, "the defendant has admitted his guilt, he is come ahead and regardless that 10 to 11 alarming years have handed within the meantime, we would not be right here at this time however for his hope for some form of forgiveness and contrition."

Clearly may even should register as a intercourse offender.

Cleary left Gettysburg after the assault and finally completed school in Silicon Valley, Calif., the place he'd grown up.

He then obtained a grasp's diploma and labored for Tesla earlier than shifting abroad.

In 2019, he despatched the Fb messages to Keeler, and she or he renewed her efforts with police and prosecutors after noticing them a couple of months later. In 2021, she shared her expertise in an Related Press story on the reluctance of prosecutors to pursue campus intercourse crimes.

Vagrancy cost in France led to arrest Cleary was indicted weeks after the AP story was printed, and following a three-year search, he was extradited from Metz, France, the place he had been detained on a vagrancy-related cost in April 2024.

In court docket on Monday, Cleary, standing just some ft away, apologized to Keeler and his father.

"I am dedicated to getting therapy for psychological well being and stuff like that as I am going ahead," he stated.

Cleary's members of the family have declined to touch upon the case and didn't attend most of his court docket hearings.

The system that failed me a decade in the past lastly delivered accountability, however at a price. Proof was misplaced. Time handed, - Shannon Keeler, in influence assertion Keeler, in interviews with the AP, described her repeated efforts to influence authorities to press expenses, beginning hours after the assault.

"I had been interested by this second for 12 years," Keeler stated after seeing Cleary in court docket in July, when he pleaded responsible to second-degree sexual assault. She known as it a surreal second.

Authorities within the U.S. and Europe tried to trace Cleary down after the indictment however appeared unable to observe his path, on-line or in any other case, till his arrest within the unrelated case.

Defence lawyer John Abom maintained that Cleary was homeless at occasions and unaware of the fees. Adams County District Lawyer Brian Sinnett stated he had his doubts however couldn't show that Cleary was on the run.

The AP usually doesn't identify individuals who say they've been sexually assaulted until they arrive ahead publicly, as Keeler has accomplished.

"The system that failed me a decade in the past lastly delivered accountability, however at a price. Proof was misplaced. Time handed," she advised the court docket Monday, noting that outcomes of the rape package she was on condition that night time had been destroyed by the point of the indictment.

"My life moved on, however the influence by no means went away. Not for me, not for my household, not for anybody who needed to watch this unfold repeatedly," she stated.